Cabinet Minister: No gay White North

Canada’s immigration minister, acting against advice from a senior aide, ordered the removal of references to gay rights in a study guide for immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship.

Internal documents, obtained by The Canadian Press, reveal that a draft of the guide held sections noting that homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, and that Canada’s
Charter of Rights and Freedoms forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The draft also noted that same-sex marriage was legalized in the “Great White North” five years ago.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney ordered that these sections be removed when his office sent instructions to the department last spring.

In a memo obtained by The Canadian Press under Canada’s Access to Information Act, deputy immigration minister Neil Yeates appealed for reinstatement of gay rights provisions:

“Recommend the re-insertion of the text boxes related to . . . the decriminalization of homosexual sec/recognition of same-sex marriage . . . Recommend the addition of ‘equality rights’ under list of rights. Had noted earlier that this bullet should be reinserted into the list as a means of noting the equality of all based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.”

The final citizenship guide, “released with fanfare” late last year, does not mention gay or lesbian rights. About 500,000 copies were printed, and citizenship applicants will be tested on its contents.

Canada’s late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was an early champion of removing criminal penalties for sexual acts between consenting adults. In a famous statement while Justice Minister, Trudeau declared that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.

Kenney is a member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s right-of-center Conservative Party government, elected four years ago.

As an opposition member of the House of Commons, he spoke out against same-sex marriage and strongly opposed the 2005 Civil Marriage Act.

Kenney repeated his stance in 2006 when Harper’s newly elected government attempted unsuccessfully to repeal the legislation.

Kenney told a group of Punjabi journalists from Toronto that “gays had every right to marry – as long as it wasn’t someone of the same sex,” The Canadian Press reported on Tuesday.

An opposition Liberal Party lawmaker, married in a same-sex ceremony in 2007, told The Canadian Press that the Conservative Party government has airbrushed from the Guide rights that it doesn’t agree with.

“It’s becoming very clear that Minister Kenney never intended this to be a Canadian citizenship guide but instead a Conservative citizenship guide,” said Scott Brison.